Edward Snowden began downloading documents describing the US government’s electronic spying while he was working for Dell in April 2012 — almost a year earlier than previously reported, according to US officials and other sources familiar with the matter.

Snowden, who worked for the info-tech giant until earlier this year, allegedly left an electronic footprint indicating he accessed info about eavesdropping programs run by the NSA and Britain, the sources said.

Snowden has said he left Dell for a job at Booz Allen Hamilton around March of this year — specifically to gain access to additional top-secret documents that could be leaked.